Christmas and New Year pics - finally had time to d/l them..

[HKRockChick]

OK, I finally downloaded my Christmas and New Years pics off the memory chip, and I shall post a few slowly...



Let's start backwards, with New Years…



We brought in New Years at my sister's friends place in the woods - a 200 yr old real log cabin. It was brilliant. Her friends are a Pagan couple who hold their rituals in a clearing in the woods. They constucted this huge bonfire for us in the clearing and after a wonderful dinner and lots of wine in their log cabin, we trotted down to breathe in the night air.







hmmmm wonder why I thought of the Blairwitch project... hahahahahaha







I tell ya, it was bitterly cold. We couldn’t hold hands and dance around the bonfire (as we do every year in India) cause there were only 8 of us and it was too big. hahaha. So we just walked around it and sang. The bits of us that weren’t exposed were frozen and the bits that were, were being barbequed after 2 minutes, so we had to keep turning heh!



Here's my mom and sis... getting warmed up.







Feeling a bit happier...







Apparently there are bears and wolves in these woods, but nothing came near us cause of the huge bonfire.



I’m going to use this for next years x’mas card…







or this







All along the way to the woods they had put these candles in brown paper bags, weighed down by sand, what a brilliant idea!











Then they had this really cool sunlantern:







Course, there are never many pics of me cause I'm always the one with the camera. gaaaah.



I had to put the camera on "night shot" which turns everything green and black, but at least you get a picture instead of complete blackness! I could only take decent normal colour ones of the fire, so here's another.







All in all, it was a very quiet, reflective new year, which was brilliant. Next day we got up to go to mass, but apparently there was no mass on NY's day. So we had a really big breakfast of pancakes and bacon and eggs etc etc etc etc instead at the local diner instead! I must've put on about 5 kgs over christmas...but it was 5 kgs worth of relaxation and that was what mattered!



Next up, a few christmas pics...

[droolymutt]

lolol.........





tres cool, Debbers.............





I was afraid our North American winter would freeze you like an ice cube.....





I guess it's hard to freeze warm blood, huh?.........

[HKRockChick]

yeah, hard to freeze warm blood... what do you about icy toes though??? hahahahahaha



to you too pal.



speaking of warm blood, just finished jumping around the living room - doing my exercises...



Drooly do you exercise? and what form does it take (no pun intended...)

[bbchris]

brrrr Debbie!! It looks so cold in your photos!! My hands are feeling all cold now!! brrrrr!! Great photo of you & Abe!!! You all look huge in your winter gear! How many LAYERS were you wearing?!?!?!?!?

|Blah Blah|Thinking Out Loud|Jane Eliz||Talk Soup |

[droolymutt]

I don't do "formal" exercise, Deb.....





But I'm quite active physically, and eat wisely......







Nosey girl..................

[droolymutt]

Icy toes?





That's easy.





Get 3 cats.





That's good advice from a born and bred Canadian.







That will be $20, please.....

[HKRockChick]

Chris, I was wearing at least 4 layers hahahaha. And the coats were quilted and thick but we were still cold, and we had gloves too. Did I mention two thick socks as well? hahahaha



But I felt COLDER in Hong Kong. Thats because the homes are well insulated in cold places and you dont fight so hard to keep warm all the time. So the little time you spend in the open air is quite tolerable. In HK it seemed I was permanently tense trying to keep warm, despite several layers and warm clothes here too. It was pretty awful coming back to the cold here. yuck.



Drooly! THREE cats! I dont think so... not in my apartment, thank you! We had dogs in India, but thats cause we had lots of space. I think its cruel and inhuman to keep animals in flats.



I eat carefully too but I have to exercise, both for my weight but also for energy levels. I mostly have a desk job when I'm not on a training, so gotta watch it.



So who else does exercise on this board? and how often?



C'mon now...

[droolymutt]

You seem to really be into physical exercise, SleePea....





I guess that's cool, - especially if you have a desk job....









And as far as diet goes?





Do you eat meat?







?





Personally - I don't think eating meat is good for Humans....







But that's just me....

[HKRockChick]

at 6:30am I first try and try and try doing my exercises in my head, but it has zero effect on my metabolism... so I have to get up and put on my exercise DVD. sigh.



I eat most things. Prefer seafood to red meat, but do enjoy meat. That's what my canines are for I would think... hahahaha. Just winding you up . But seriously I do eat most things. My favourite is crab meat, and I love snails. I eat any cuisine too, from anywhere in the world. I draw the line at bugs and such, but maybe I'd give it a try, just to say I tasted it. I mean if we can eat shrimp, why not?



When I first came to HK I was grossed out at chickens feet, but I tried it anyway, and it was quite horrid, just tasteless fatty skin. So I dont eat it.



Crocodile meat is pretty damn good, like fish and chicken combined. Ostrich is not bad either.



There. Have I grossed you out completely now?



[sitting back and waiting for the judgement...]

[bbchris]

I exercise!! I run races. Last month I did a beginner's triathlon training course. I'm now aiming to do my first duathlon later this year (swimming & running) just to give me something to aim for. I go to the gym to work on my "Madonna" arms. My arms are more muscular than they've ever been. I've started doing chin-ups - you know like Linda Hamilton does at the beginning of Terminator 2? She also had fabulous arms in that movie.

|Blah Blah|Thinking Out Loud|Jane Eliz||Talk Soup |

[ilikepie2]

i think heating and cooling is something americans take for granted. i think one of my asian friends told us they don't have heat in the houses in the part of china they lived, and that's part of the reason for a high infant mortality rate in her area. is that the way it is in hong kong too- no internal heat?



looks like a fun time debbie. did you sing anywhere while you were here?

Bud Bennett

homepage :

stained glass :

clownie :

i like pie

[bbchris]

Since it's hot here 9-10 months of the year - AIR-CONDITIONERS are the in-thing....

|Blah Blah|Thinking Out Loud|Jane Eliz||Talk Soup |

[HKRockChick]

Hiya Bud!



the more modern systems have both heating and cooling coming from the same conditioner, but in most homes there is no central heating. I have a separate radiator at home. Having no central heating is misery in the cold, I can tell you. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And the damn place is HUMID. so its cold AND wet. ugh. I have two dehumidifiers running all the time, otherwise everything will turn green and walk out of the house on its own.



I was supposed to drive down to the keys and meet Brad and do a coupla songs with him, but in the end, from West Palm Beach to the Keys the drive would have been too long, so we drove up to Disney instead. A real pity, cause he sent me where he was playing and everything. Sigh. Thats what happens when those distances are so huge and the roads are unfamiliar. Getting to Disney was another story - we missed two exits and drove all over the place. heh. And we're used to driving on the left... hahahahaha it was a real adventure, but we got back safe and sound.

[ilikepie2]

i've always been sort of afraid of the disney empire. just seems scarey to me that they are everywhere. coke and pepsi too, they seem to own everything in the us. that sort of thing sort of scares me. disney especially though. but lemme say, every single person i've ever talked to who has been to disneyland or disneyworld has nothing but good things to say about the magic kingdom.



i hope you had a great time there debbie!

Bud Bennett

homepage :

stained glass :

[HKRockChick]

It was a lot of fun, and we went on the rides. Mostly I enjoyed the shows - there was one on "Main Street" as we entered and another at Cinderella's castle. I love watching dancers. I dont mind Disney, they do some great stuff, but I object strongly to coke and pepsi and other aerated sugared drinks - dont touch the stuff, and as a result have all my teeth intact... hahahaha



OK, back to Christmas...



[I had to remove some pics they were too large - gotta resize]



Don’t know what these two were pondering… heh







I think mother was speechifying…







See how neat the place is now?



http://www.debbiemannas.com/images/Other%20Graphics/xmas2003/marion.jpg



Well it was like a tornado hit after we opened all the prezzies… hahahaha







Sis and Bro in law







mom and sis







Well I hope you enjoyed. I'm more a "people" photographer than a "place" photographer...

Edited by: HKRockChick at: 3/24/04 4:16 pm